Cognitive: Students will understand that, while there is bound to be some tension between friends’ and families’ desires, the family is the primary relationship and responsibility. Affective: Students will empathize with and also respect Rajiv. They will feel a sense of willingness to be obedient to the demands of their families. Behavioral: Students will compare two stories of peer pressure versus their families’ values. They will describe good times with their families and delineate times when there were conflicts between what their families wanted and what they and their friends wanted. They will role-play resisting peer pressure to go against their families’ wishes and interests.
Ask for a student volunteer to recount the story of “Family or Friends?”
Explain that this story, “Family or Friends,” explores the push-and-pull adolescents often feel between their friends and their families. Mention that this push-and-pull may grow stronger in the next few years as they grow in independence and want to do more and more things apart from their families. Make the point that they still need their parents’ guidance, however, and they will need it very much for several years to come. Their parents have much wisdom and experience with which to guide them.
Ask students to do the Reflection Exercise: “My Friends and My Family.”
Divide students into small groups of three or four students and ask them to discuss and write down answers to the Questions for Reflections.
Class Session 2
Ask for a student volunteer to recount the story of “Family or Friends?”. Ask students if things turned out all right for Rajiv. Did he have fun with his family? Did he have as much fun as he would have had with his friends? Ask students to look at the story from the point where Rajiv went along with his family to his aunt’s house. Ask for student volunteers to recount all the things the family did together. Does it sound like a good time? What in the text indicates that Rajiv probably had a better time with his family than he would have had with his friends?
Ask students to turn to the Exercise: “Family Fun” in their student texts. Divide the students into small discussion groups and ask them to do the exercise together. Mention that even though each person will be talking about personal experiences among people the others probably do not know, everyone is expected to listen to one another respectfully and politely.
When students are finished discussing this, mention that although we can have fun with our families, there is sometimes conflict between what we want to do with our friends and what our parents and families want us to do—just as in Rajiv’s case. Things do not always turn out as well as they did in Rajiv’s case, either.
Explain that Rajiv’s friends were from families similar to his, so he was pretty sure they would forgive him for not going along with the group. Ask: “What do you do if you think your friends will not forgive you for choosing your family, or your family’s rules or values, over what they want you to do? What if you risk losing your friends over obeying your parents?”
Open up a discussion about this and allow students to share and to give their opinions.
Ask students how they can resist peer pressure to do things that will make trouble for them with their families. Divide them into four groups and assign them to role-play the following scenarios:
1. Raphael’s family hates smoking. One of the grandparents died of lung cancer from smoking. Raphael’s friends want him to try a cigarette with them.
2. Cara’s family is very religious. She can’t go places with her friends on Sunday mornings because her parents insist she must be in church. Cara’s friends want her to go to the roller rink with them Sunday morning.
3. Melissa’s family has lost a relative, and the funeral is Tuesday. Melissa wasn’t close to this relative, but her family insists she must attend the funeral. Her friends are upset because the class is going on a field trip to a museum that day and they want to hang around with Melissa at the museum.
4. Tony’s family insists that he be home by eight-thirty on weeknights. The family always gathers together to discuss their day and to share some special family time before everyone starts getting ready to go to bed. It is nearly eight-thirty, and Tony just has two more levels to beat on the video game he is playing at his neighbor’s house. His friends urge him to stay and beat the levels, which will take another half hour, even if it means he will be late getting home.
Affirm students’ good solutions to these dilemmas.
Lesson Objectives
Cognitive: Students will understand that, while there is bound to be some tension between friends’ and families’ desires, the family is the primary relationship and responsibility.
Affective: Students will empathize with and also respect Rajiv. They will feel a sense of willingness to be obedient to the demands of their families.
Behavioral: Students will compare two stories of peer pressure versus their families’ values. They will describe good times with their families and delineate times when there were conflicts between what their families wanted and what they and their friends wanted. They will role-play resisting peer pressure to go against their families’ wishes and interests.
Ask for a student volunteer to recount the story of “Family or Friends?”
Explain that this story, “Family or Friends,” explores the push-and-pull adolescents often feel between their friends and their families. Mention that this push-and-pull may grow stronger in the next few years as they grow in independence and want to do more and more things apart from their families. Make the point that they still need their parents’ guidance, however, and they will need it very much for several years to come. Their parents have much wisdom and experience with which to guide them.
Ask students to do the Reflection Exercise: “My Friends and My Family.”
Divide students into small groups of three or four students and ask them to discuss and write down answers to the Questions for Reflections.
Class Session 2
Ask for a student volunteer to recount the story of “Family or Friends?”. Ask students if things turned out all right for Rajiv. Did he have fun with his family? Did he have as much fun as he would have had with his friends? Ask students to look at the story from the point where Rajiv went along with his family to his aunt’s house. Ask for student volunteers to recount all the things the family did together. Does it sound like a good time? What in the text indicates that Rajiv probably had a better time with his family than he would have had with his friends?
Ask students to turn to the Exercise: “Family Fun” in their student texts. Divide the students into small discussion groups and ask them to do the exercise together. Mention that even though each person will be talking about personal experiences among people the others probably do not know, everyone is expected to listen to one another respectfully and politely.
When students are finished discussing this, mention that although we can have fun with our families, there is sometimes conflict between what we want to do with our friends and what our parents and families want us to do—just as in Rajiv’s case. Things do not always turn out as well as they did in Rajiv’s case, either.
Explain that Rajiv’s friends were from families similar to his, so he was pretty sure they would forgive him for not going along with the group. Ask: “What do you do if you think your friends will not forgive you for choosing your family, or your family’s rules or values, over what they want you to do? What if you risk losing your friends over obeying your parents?”
Open up a discussion about this and allow students to share and to give their opinions.
Ask students how they can resist peer pressure to do things that will make trouble for them with their families. Divide them into four groups and assign them to role-play the following scenarios:
1. Raphael’s family hates smoking. One of the grandparents died of lung cancer from smoking. Raphael’s friends want him to try a cigarette with them.
2. Cara’s family is very religious. She can’t go places with her friends on Sunday mornings because her parents insist she must be in church. Cara’s friends want her to go to the roller rink with them Sunday morning.
3. Melissa’s family has lost a relative, and the funeral is Tuesday. Melissa wasn’t close to this relative, but her family insists she must attend the funeral. Her friends are upset because the class is going on a field trip to a museum that day and they want to hang around with Melissa at the museum.
4. Tony’s family insists that he be home by eight-thirty on weeknights. The family always gathers together to discuss their day and to share some special family time before everyone starts getting ready to go to bed. It is nearly eight-thirty, and Tony just has two more levels to beat on the video game he is playing at his neighbor’s house. His friends urge him to stay and beat the levels, which will take another half hour, even if it means he will be late getting home.
Affirm students’ good solutions to these dilemmas.